Toronto’s mental health emergency services have received a boost through a partnership between the City of Toronto and Northeastern University’s Toronto campus. The Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS), a non-police led mental health response team providing free, confidential, in-person support to residents aged 16 and older, has grown into the city’s fourth-largest emergency service since its launch in March 2022 and citywide expansion in July 2024.
To enhance TCCS operations, the Toronto Police Reform Department enlisted students from Northeastern’s data communication and visualization course to analyze anonymized dispatch data. The initiative aimed to visualize call trends and improve resource allocation. Andrea Morales, the project lead from Toronto’s police reform office, described the program as relatively new and noted the value of data assessment in refining its services.
Students identified distinct seasonal and daily patterns in call volumes, insights that could guide staffing and deployment decisions. Manav Gupta, a graduate student in analytics, stressed the importance of cleaning real-world data — which often contains errors and inconsistencies — before analysis, providing students with practical experience applicable to professional data work.
Professor John Wilder emphasized the educational benefits of working with actual city data, enhancing students’ understanding of local issues while building their technical skills. Nicole Watson, former manager of the police reform department, highlighted the mutual benefits of the university partnership, noting that it supports both student learning and the ongoing development of TCCS.
Beyond academic gains, this collaboration strengthens the city’s commitment to public accountability and transparency. Watson pointed out that equipping students to create accessible data visualizations helps Toronto communicate effectively with its residents, fostering trust in mental health services.
This joint effort between Northeastern University and Toronto demonstrates how academic institutions and municipal agencies can work together to use data-driven strategies to improve mental health crisis responses, ultimately benefiting the community at large.
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